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These are the raw confessions of the growing pains I experience as I learn software engineering. I am learning on my own but with lots of priceless resources online. You'll hear about these resources in my articles. Please pray for me!
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My First Activity in The Microsoft Front-End Development Professional Certificate Course
Filling My Gaps in Learning and Getting Work Ready
How I Worked Through Fixing A JavaScript Problem in The CodeHS Curriculum
I am really feeling good right now! I am most certainly still a novice, but I am finally understanding how Javascript operates. I can not explain to you how clueless I was about coding! I was lost and the only thing I could do was pick away at my key...
About 9 months to a year ago, I thought all the hard work I'd been doing was turning out to be a waste of time...
The word on everyone's lips was, and still is, AI.
Tech giants, on an incremental 15-minute cycle, warned AI would wipe out programmers. And not just programmers, the warning was much more dismal. They warned everyone that nobody would be working because AI would do everything for us.
I was heartbroken because for the last 3 years, I'd been investing all of my spare time into learning how to code. Hours upon hours of tutorials, virtual meetings, Coursera certificates, and endless debugging.
I felt like quitting, but what was I going to do? The message was clear: "Nobody will need to work." I slowly put myself back together and decided I would continue learning how to code.
I said to myself, "I guess I'll just do it as a hobby." And here I am, 4 years later, still pounding on my keyboard and loving every minute of it.
Everyone said learn to vibecode, but I was never comfortable with the idea. I didn't understand how allowing AI to generate code from my natural voice commands would be beneficial.
I wanted, and still work towards having a complete understanding of the program I am writing without relying on AI. So I am continuing down the longer path of learning how to manually code.
Manual coding was much easier at the beginning of last year, now it's almost impossible to avoid AI input. IDEs automatically generate code whether you want it to or not. Google searches used to bring up articles, now it brings up an entire AI-generated explanation...
Granted, I am no longer spending hours looking for an answer, but that was part of the fun. Because I am a reasonable person and have embraced AI as one of my main learning tools.
AI has helped me in my learning process because I can ask it endless questions. I want to know the details of each line of code. I can ask for terminal commands, how to get unstuck, proper process, and more. All in an instant.
The strange thing is, with all of the answers, there's still so much to learn. If you're serious about programming, you have to learn why the answer works and how the logic is solving your problem. This takes time and experience.
The refined answers I get lead to more questions and ultimately more to learn. AI has definitely helped, but it's also increased the amount of information I want to know.
I've concluded there are no shortcuts when you strive for mastery and excellence.
And nothing beats a human who's willing to share their knowledge and experience with a budding computer scientist. Thank you to every human who has helped me, continues to add to my journey, and to those mentors I've yet to meet.